A nice warm evening, a perfect track and a well organized
event allowed 47 races to get packed in, to provide a fine evening of racing.

The Auburn Track Championship and the Youth
National Championship all on the same night.

The format for each event was a straight 20 heat 16 rider
championship format, with no A or B mains at the end.

No real surprises in the results, Mike Faria was track
champion, with an unspoiled 15 points, TJ Fowler was Youth National Champion, again with
15 points.

Unofficial results:

2002 Auburn Track Championship

Rider

1

2

3

4

5

Tot

Mike

Faria

3

3

3

3

3

15

Alan

Christian

3

2

3

3

2

13

Bobby

Hedden

3

3

2

3

1

12

Bart

Bast

3

3

3

3

0

12

Bryan

Yarrow

1

1

2

2

3

9

Chad

Felicio

2

2

2

0

3

9

Tommy

Hedden

2

2

1

0

3

8

Scott

Brant

0

3

3

0

0

6

Matt

Browne

2

1

1

1

1

6

Ivan

Sevart

1

2

0

1

1

5

Ian

Essary

0

0

2

1

2

5

Chris

Kerr

1

0

0

2

2

5

Greg

Hooten Jnr.

2

0

0

2

0

4

Billy

Hiles

0

0

0

2

0

2

JJ

Martynse

0

0

1

0

1

2

Paul

Orlandi

1

1

0

0

0

2

Bart

Bartecki

1

1

1

0

2

5 (reserve 5 rides)

Mike Faria added yet another title to his collection.
After twenty five years at the top of American Speedway one wonders whether any future
rider will be able to compete with Mike's ability to consistently win top events for so
many years. He made the first four rides look easy, but the whole event really came down
to heat 18. Lining up for their fifth ride were Mike Faria and Bart Bast with 12 points,
and Alan Christian and Bobby Hedden with 11 points. Bart promptly touched the tapes, and
then there were three. Faria got the gate, leaving Alan and Bobby to battle for the other
two places. That also was the placing order for the championship.

Behind those four was a big gap. Scott Brant pulled out of
his first ride after a mid corner contact injury. He then went out and took 2 wins, but in
his next ride his engine made an expensive noise and his evening was over.

Chris Kerr took on the role of the annihilator. In his
second ride he forced Greg Hooten to take avoiding action which took Greg so far across
the infield that he looked like a hazard to the leading riders coming the other way! In
his next ride Chris put Paul Orlandi into the wall, which ended his evening. In his other
races Chris rode well.

Bryan Yarrow was lucky to compete at all. Still in pain from
last week's dislocated shoulder Bryan had a good evening.

Visiting Polishman Bart Bartecki had a busy evening. As was
the case last year, there were an unusually high number of tape disqualification's and
exclusions, that the reserve had to cover.

Division 2 Track Championship
1. Jon Curry
2. Robert Mellor
3. Derek Silva
4. David Baker
It was good to see Jon Curry win, having missed more than a month mid season with a
non-Speedway related injury and barely scraping into the event.

Division 3 Track Championship
1. Mike Achilles
2. Kelly McBane
3. Rick Gutzke
4. Dino Blankenbiller
This was actually a very good race. Dino looped out at the gate, but the other three had a
close race for 4 laps, with the lead swapping several times.

Youth National Championship

Rider

1

2

3

4

5

Tot

TJ

Fowler

3

3

3

3

3

15

Mark

Carrillo

3

0

3

3

3

12

JT

Mabry

3

3

2

2

2

12

Justin

Boyle

0

3

3

3

2

11

Tim

Gomez

1

3

2

3

0

9

Ricky

Adams

2

1

3

0

3

9

Alex

Marcucci

3

0

2

2

1

8

Hunter

Morris

2

2

1

0

3

8

Ricky

Wells

1

2

2

1

1

7

Jay

Ricketts

0

1

1

2

2

6

Danny

Easley

2

2

0

2

0

6

Paul

Johnson

0

0

2

0

2

4

Tom

Fuhrman

0

1

0

1

1

3

Mitchell

Johnson

2

0

1

0

0

3

Krystal

Cramer

1

0

0

1

1

3

Ricky

Felicio

1

0

1

0

0

2

Bruce

Bast

1

1

2 reserve, 2 rides

TJ Fowler was for the second year running, the worthy
winner. Five perfect rides and a maximum 15 points. TJ's title really did not look in
danger at any stage. Second place was a different story, being wide open all evening.
Throughout the evening most favorites lost major points due to falls or engine failures.
Not JT Mabry, who started the evening with 2 easy heats, which built the confidence to
carry it through, without making any mistakes. He lost his points to Boyle, Fowler and
Carrillo. On equal points was Mark Carrillo, and Mark won the run-off tie breaker to take
second place. Mark lost his points when his engine stopped mid corner, while holding
second place behind Fowler. Fourth and fifth place were taken by 2 Los Angeles lads, Justin Boyle and Tim Gomez. Justin Boyle, who finished third last year fell in his first
race and lost his other point to Fowler. This was his first race for a month, after a
major engine blow up, and he completed the rebuild 2 hours before the race. Tim Gomez did
well to finish sixth, considering it was the first time he had ridden the Auburn track in
3 years. Ricky Adams rode well and has come a long way since this time last year when he
took third place in division 3. The other noteworthy rider was Hunter Morris. Hunter
started the season bouncing off the walls in division 3, and scraped into the National
after a run off. But what a great performance he put on last night. On the other end of
the spectrum, rostrum favorite Danny Easley had a night I am sure he would prefer to
forget. One fall, one engine failure and in the races he finished he lost points to
Fowler, Gomez and Carrillo. Danny has another chance next year, since he is still 14.
Another rider I expect to do better was Paul Johnson, whose night was plagued by falls.

Unlucky Bruce Bast broke his wrist in a skate-boarding accident 6 weeks ago. This
prevented him from competing in the qualifier run-off, so he got reduced to reserve.
Despite his injuries and disappointment he showed good sportsmanship. He rode well in his
2 reserve rides.